Book Reviews with Amber at The Mewton-Clawson Library #236 featuring **Black Magic Kitten - Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 1** by Sara Bourgeois PLUS Friendly Fill-Ins + Photo Fails Blog Hop

Hello meautiful library guests 

and 

Welcome to the Mewton-Clawson Library at BBHQ 

Thank mew for joining me in the stacks today, and purrlease don't tell me I've got eye snot! MOL

I know I have a little bit of gunk, but I'm utterly adamant that I don't need one of the eye wipes on my face. That happened last week and I didn't enjoy it one bit, so on Wednesday morning I refused at point-blank range to be accosted again.

But I just know the P.A. is waiting to ambush me, so I'll be sleeping with one eye open! MOL

Today the P.A. is also joining in Friday Fill-ins Blog Hop with the pawesome 15 & Meowing and Four-Legged Furballs.

1. ___________________ down, _________________ to go.

2. It’s all fun and games until _________________.

3. By some miracle, I _________.

4. Unless _________, I rarely _________.

The P.A.'s answers are...

1. Two down, and lots to go. That's where I am with my books, I've got two completely finished which I'm really happy about, however, there are so many more to finish! LOL

2. It’s all fun and games until someone pushes your face into a cake. I have seen several of these videos where people get cake smashed into their faces or literally their entire face smooshed into the cake. I don't think it's funny or nice, in fact, I think it's downright horrible and not to mention such a waste of cake.

3. By some miracle, I might win the lottery one day and go and buy a farm, so I can rescue oodles and oodles of anipals who need a furever home.

4. Unless I really, really have to, I rarely go into the city these days.

Today, as it's the last Friyay of the month, we're also joining in the furrbulous...

So do drop by the marvellous Mudpie's blog at www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com to join in.

Today we're sharing Basil's Epic Catnip Fail from March 2005! MOL

This is one of our favourite funny pics of Angel Basil.

Let's see what I've got to show mew this time!

This week's top book pick is...

Mewton-Clawson Library Copy

Black Magic Kitten

 Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 1

by 

Sara Bourgeois

       Here's a little snippet of the book blurb:      

Kinsley Skeenbauer never thought she would go home. At seventeen, she’d left Coventry and didn’t look back. But after a messy divorce, she packed up her stuff and drove toward the only place that she knew would accept her.

Life hadn’t been easy for Kinsley since she left town. Despite wanting a family desperately, she was childless. She had a college degree but had just been fired… again…

She’d spent her entire adult life rebelling against what she was, and that meant hiding her true self from the world. Kinsley left Coventry on a mission to be ordinary.

But you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

Coventry isn’t your typical small town. It’s home to the most powerful family of witches in the world. Two ancient witch families united when her parents married, and she was supposed to be their leader.

This is my first novel by Sara Bourgeois, and I must say it won't be my last.

This is a fun cozy mystery with a paranormal vibe and a touch of clean romance between our heroine and the town's sheriff.

Meri is her cat familiar, and after a wish goes awry he ends up as a kitten again, much to his chagrin, hence the title of the book. With a murder to solve and our heroine, Kinsley as the main suspect, the witch and her familiar set about trying to find the real killer.

Mew know I read and listen to a lot of cozy mystery books, and I really did enjoy this one. The plot unfolds at a nice pace, and the characters develop well as they try to solve the murder. There are other paranormals in the town and we get to meet the local vampire gang, and other characters and suspects as the clock is ticking.

If mew are in the market for a new witchy cozy mystery, this one could well tick all the boxes. I'll definitely be working my way through the series and sharing my thought about each book. Plus if mew are subscribed to Kindle Unlimited there are 19 books available to read for free.

A purrfect read for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Paperback: 247 pages

My Ratings Scale

Ratings of:

Black Magic Kitten

Overall Enjoyment

Other Fun Blog Hops to Join in Today

          Brian's Home   Catblogosphere    Feline Friday   Nature Friday    Flashback Friday   Friendship Friday       

I really hope mew enjoy the book as much as I did if mew decide to read it.

It's time for me to say BFN or bye-for-now as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time and I'll be back next week with another specially paw-picked book just for mew, and don't furget that all my previous reviews can be found on my Book Review page.

Until next time...

Keep calm and read more books

Amber 

Follow me at angry_amber_badtemperedkitty

& @BionicBasil® on Instacat

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another review! 

 graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

Welcome to The BBHQ Midweek News Round-Up ~ Catnip Seeds Are A GO! Smooch Is In The Summerhouse and Melvyn's Wearing This Weeks Top Pick Bandana **PLUS* This Weeks Top Videos AND THE NEW EASTER BANDANA SELECTION

 Smashing Greetings Supurr Furiends

Welcome to the BBHQ midweek news round-up!

If mew saw our news report last week, mew'll know that a hedgehog was spotted in the BBHQ garden after a long hibernation. The good news is the hedgehog came back and has now found the food supply and is visiting most evenings. Although, while out on Hedgehog Watch the other night, the P.A. and Dad were standing under the gazebo hoping to spot him/her, and would mew believe it, but he/she ambled out of the potting shed, straight around the corner and walked right up to the P.A.s feet.

Obviously, the P.A. was like a statue, as was Dad while the hedgehog suddenly stopped realising that there was something in the way. He/she paused for about ten seconds and then decided to do an about-turn and went the other way behind the outdoor sofa. 

The P.A. thinks that this one is either Wriggles, Scooter or Zippy, as Snuffles and Prickles were much bigger than this one the last time she saw them. So this is one of the little ones born in 2021, she remembers the lighter-coloured spikes but she won't be able to make a propurr identification unless the others come back as they all had little quirks to identify them.

We also have a question for blogger users, in the last week and a half, blogger has been acting weird. We've got comments in our spam folder, from previously published comments from our furiends plus our own replies to the comments, these were previously published and not spam. This has been happening every day, and there are anywhere between 1 - 15 comments from 2015 to 2019, plucked at random and stuck in the spam folder. So we're having to approve them again.

So our question is this: is blogger doing this to mew?

Also, we mentioned a few weeks ago that we were unable to back up our blog content, as it keeps saying at 71.8mb that the network failed - it hasn't. We've sent countless messages to blogger, and haven't got any answers yet. So until it rectifies itself, we're copying the HTML from every finished post and saving them in a file just in case. But trying to get any help from the blogger team has thus far proved impawsible!

First up in the news this week

Catnip Seeds Are A GO!

In a Catmas card last year, we were utterly thrilled to find a packet of extra special catnip seeds from our wonderpurr friend Juliana in Los Angeles. So on Monday when the P.A. was in the potting shed setting a few other seeds, and we gently reminded her that NOW would be a good time to get our epic gift growing. 

OMC did mew ever see such a cute seed packet? Isn't it delightful!

Anyhoo, the P.A. set them and now we are eagerly awaiting for the germination to begin and then potting on, did I say we're so excited to try a brand new variety of catnip?! MOL

Thank mew so much Juliana, it was the best surprise pressie ever! 

Next up in the news

 Smooch Is In The Summerhouse

The P.A. opened the summer house on Caturday as she was getting a Pond Pod for the pond as it was looking a little murky, and look who went and got himself on the cat tree in there, and he spent the afternoon covertly spying on everypawdy! MOL

And talking of ponds, mew may remember a couple of months ago, that some of the frogs got trapped under the ice and were just floating in the water, and we were really worried about them. Well most of them survived and we've now got frog spawn in the pond again, so those we sadly lost, the numbers should increase again with the new batch, as at the moment there are three football size clumps of spawn which is utterly epic news.

Finally this week

Melvyn's Modelling The Top Bandana Pick

This week Melvyn is modelling the very last bandana from the March selection, the Funny Bunnies bandana. 

Doesn't it look epically furbulous, and right on time to kick the Easter Season off.

Check out Melvyn's latest catwalk or runway videos on:

TikTok

Instagram

YouTube

Which one is your favourite this week? 

Which one should he model next?

Here's the brand new Easter selection for April. 

The P.A. went through Melvyn's extensive wardrobe and realised that he was severely lacking in Easter-themed bandanas, so she headed into the sewing room and rustled up options; 1, 3 and 4. And the #2 option is from Melvyn's favourite shop on Etsy, Eric's Empawrium - see the link in the sidebar if mew'd like to visit Eric.

The options from the top left in a clockwise direction:

1. Lamb'a'licious with yellow fringing

2. Cute White Bunnies

3. Flower Bunny with pink and white tassels

4. Ducky and Lambkin Do Easter with crystal trim

Tell us your top pick for next week in the comments!

EXTRA, EXTRA!

Check out this week's top videos:

Fudge and His Fish - TikTok

The Friday Night Cat Rave at BBHQ - Instagram

The Red Arrows Above BBHQ - YouTube

Thanks for stopping by today, Amber will be back on Friday with another fab book just for mew and if mew missed any other posts from the last few days, here are the links:

The B Team Beach Selfie

Brain Training

Easter Crafting with Cats Rerun - Catnip Easter Eggs

Easter Crafting with Cats Rerun - Scratch'n'Purrch Shroom

Have an epic day and remember to always...

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

**RERUN**Easter Eggstravaganza** Crafting With Cats ~ How We Made The Scratch'n'Purrch Magic Shroom and Mini Faux Lawn

Welcome to

Supurr Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining us for the second re-run in our Easter Crafting with Cats series. Mew know we have so much fun making all this stuff for feline enrichment, and we hope mew enjoy seeing it and/or making it too! 

If mew missed how to make the catnip Easter Eggs on Caturday, click here.

And mew can find all our previous projects on the Crafting with Cats Page. And don't panic, as mew don't have to be an expert in anything to make any of them. Plus we offer workarounds and no-sew projects for those who don't like to sew.

*    *    *

**A quick note before we begin**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design and we share them for purrsonal/home use only.

  So purrlease do not copy fur commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

*    *    *

This time we're making a pawesome

Scratch'n'Purrch Magic Shroom and Mini Faux Lawn

What Mew Will Need:

For the Shroom: 

empty cable reel

sisal rope - we used 10 metres or 10.94 yards

wadding

faux fur green

white felt square

fabric of your choice - we used a piece of raw silk dupion in candy pink for the top of our shroom 

cotton - needle - scissors - optional sewing machine - staple gun - glue gun

Fur the mini faux lawn mew will need:

faux fur in green

backing fabric

wadding

**see our previous tutorial on how to make the mini faux lawn aka snuggle matt**

Let's Get Started

1. Dad had thrown this empty data cable reel out, but the P.A. spotted it and squirrelled it away in the craft room for future use, and this week an idea finally struck after a long dry spell in the creativity department. 

2.  Cut your wadding/padding to size and place it atop the soon-to-be-shroom. We used double-thickness for extra softness and comfort.

3. Take your felt and cut as many circles as mew want, we made 5.  Place them on your fabric and pin them in place.

4. Sew either on a machine; we used a simple zig-zag stitch or sew by hand, or if mew're not into sewing glue in place. 

5. Mew should now have something that looks like this.

6. Place atop the wadding and position it for the best effect.

7.  Flip your shroom and staple the fabric in place, pulling gently to keep it taut. If mew're not sure about this step, watch our chair renovation video - fast forward to 6 mins and mew'll see exactly how to do it.  You can also glue this step if you don't have a staple gun. Then cut off any excess fabric near the inner core.

8. Mew should now have something that looks like this. It's starting to look Shroom'a'licious! MOL

9. & 10. Take your faux fur and mark around the reel cutting your circle about 2" or 5 cm wider.

11. Measure the width from the inner core to the edge, mew can then cut out the exact size circle so your fabric looks like a doughnut and fits around the core purrfectly. 

12.  Glue the faux fur to the reel, then flip offur and glue the remaining overlap to the underneath.

13. & 14. Take your sisal rope and begin glueing so it covers the staples.

15. & 16. Wurk your way along the full length of the core glueing the sisal rope in place until mew reach the faux fur.

And mew should now have something that looks like this, and is covered in cats! MOL

Pop to our Instagram feed to see the video - scroll through the pics as the video is in the middle.

The B Team love it!

The Scratch'n'Purrch Magic Shroom took approximately an hour to make but should take mew less time as we didn't have any instructions. And mew can make it without using a staple gun or doing any sewing whatsoeffur - how epic, epically epic!  Mew can also use any colours mew like and that goes for the faux lawn too, it's just that we used these colours to match our Valentine's Cottage. 

And that furiends furry sadly brings us to the end of today's re-run Crafting with Cats post, we do hope mew liked it and if mew decide to make your furry own Scratch'n'Purrch Magic Shroom and Mini Faux Lawn we'd love to see.

Feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The B Team @Facebook

And if there's anything mew'd like us to make, leave a comment and we'll do our best.  

We'll be back tomorrow with this weeks hot news bulletin, so do stop by to see what we have in store for mew this week, plus mew get to vote on the brand new Easter-themed bandana selection.

Epic crafty purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Follow Us @BionicBasil®  at Instacat, Twitter and Facebook

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com